or DEGENERATING, in general, denotes the growing worse, or losing some valuable qualities whereof a thing was formerly possessed. Some naturalists have been of opinion, that things are capable of degenerating into quite a distinct species; but this is a mere chimera. All that happens in the degeneration of a plant, for instance, is the losing its usual beauty, colour, smell, &c., a circumstance entirely owing to its being planted in an improper soil, climate, &c.